Midnight Madness In Vegas

The meeting spot to begin the State 2 State Cruise was Dealer's Sport Truck in Los Alamitos, California. The number of participants for this year's cruise quickly grew to double the attendees from last year. When it was almost time to get under way, a $100 gift certificate from Dealers Sport Truck was the first of many prizes to be raffled off. The next stop was Auto & Truck Specialties (ATS). Here, the second poker card for the Poker Run was collected, free shirts were given away, and five $100 gift certificates to ATS were raffled off. The third stop was advanced FLOW engineering (aFe) in Corona, California, where another $100 gift certificate was raffled and the third poker card was given out. As it was nearing lunchtime, we headed to the fourth stop for a break and a tour of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Museum.

JC Whitney sponsored a hamburger lunch at the NHRA Museum in Pomona, California, along with free tours of the facility. Once the meal was over and everyone had finished scoping out the history of the National Hot Rod Association, it was time to get on the road and make the trek to Vegas for the final stop: a dinner party with AIM Industries. During the barbecue dinner, the winners of the poker contest were announced, along with the Grand Prize raffle winners of the Van Demon paintjob and the Vortex bedliner. The cruise was once again a successful blast, thanks to all the sponsors and participants.

Since Las Vegas is the city that never sleeps, it was an ideal venue to hold a show that would keep attendees occupied and partying the night away. This year, instead of making the show a two-day event, the festivities were rolled into one day and night of showing, browsing Freemont Street, and partying. As Saturday morning rolled around, the weather wasn't on our side: It was cloudy, and the rain from the evening before hadn't let up. As roll-in for the show continued, we didn't think we were going to see good weather anytime in the near future. No bikini contest, no band - things really weren't looking good. However, the sun peeked out around 2 p.m. and instantly began burning through the clouds and gloomy weather. Soon enough, we had perfect show 'n' shine weather, and more importantly, the bikini contest was not cancelled. We eventually made our rounds through the many show trucks and mingled with those in attendance. With all that was going on, nightfall soon came, and it was time for the trophies and bikini contest.

KAIK Products built a badass one-off billet Best of Show trophy and made custom billet plates for all the First Place trophies. The Wild Class mini-truck trophies went to Joel Ten-Ten (First), Tom Tremper (Second), and Forrest from Severed Ties (Third). The KAIK Best of Show trophy went to Jason Hill from Hill's Hot Rods. After all the trophies were handed out, it was time for the late-night bikini contest. Many new girls strutted their stuff alongside veterans Niki Zeno and Tylene Buck to battle it out for the cash and prizes. They put up some stiff competition, but when it was all over, Niki and Tylene went home with the cash.

State 2 State CruiseAs is customary for the Truckin' & Sport Truck Nationals, the event was kicked off with a state-to-state cruise the Friday before the show. Hundreds gathered to take the five-stop tour from Southern California to Las Vegas and collect on the many prizes being handed out and raffled away, including the Poker Run, where the best five-card hand from the poker cards collected at each stop would win an airbag gift certificate from AIM Industries.